ime,' the
Frenchman will not dare kiss his sweetheart on the lips. It is only
after risking the sacred second person singular, 'Je t'aime,' that he
will venture to do so, and thus stamp her his.

Well, after all is said and done, I have no doubt that Britons and
Americans find that the second person plural, for want of the second
person singular, answers the purpose well enough. And for ever and ever
men and women will love without attempting to discover new methods or
adopt foreign ones. The old story will ever be told; the old method
will ever do.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WOMAN-HATER

Should a woman marry a woman-hater?--The portrait of a woman-hater--
The risk a woman runs in marrying a woman-lover--Take your chance,
don't cast your pearls before swine.

Should a woman marry a woman-hater? Yes, some people say, because he
will pay no attention to any other woman, and will be a faithful
husband in all the force of the expression. A woman-hater is _par
excellence_ a one-woman's man, and just the sort of man that a woman
should wish to marry.

No, other people say, the woman-hater is a no-woman's man. A woman
should marry a lover of her sex, and feel proud to know that it is she
whom he prefers to all and loves best of all. Of course, they admit
that she will have to be careful and ever-watchful in order to keep
alive the interest which her husband takes in her and the affection
which he feels for her. But a woman-hater is a prig, and the male prig
is the last man that a woman should care to marry.

I think the latter are right. The woman-hater hates all women, and will
never be capable of any love for his wife any more than for any other
woman. Only the sense of ownership will make him value her. He may like
her, be a good friend to her, a hard-working and devoted husband, but
he will never be a lover to her; and the husband who, during at least
the first fifteen years of his married life, cannot now and then be the
lover of his wife fails to give to that woman that bliss which is a
perfect compensation for all the troubles and miseries of that which
the Popes are fond of calling the Vale of Tears, and Mrs. Gamp 'the
Wale of Tears.'

The woman-hater is a man who has never petted his mother, who has never
been the 'chum' of his sisters, who as a boy has despised girls, and as
a young man has treated them with disrespect and even contempt. This
kind of man has never once in his life given a thoug